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Classic
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page 334
and richly ornamented, are worth from two to eighteen hundred dollars. Marquetry
tables, work tables, library tables, Oriental chairs, lounges, easels,
music-racks, etc., of rich material and design, are valued at from ten to one
hundred and fifty dollars. The principal woods used are walnuts of various
kinds, ash, bird's-eye maple, satinwood, and kingwood. Kingwood is almost
crimson in color. Book-cases are of all prices from twenty to fourteen hundred
dollars, and sideboards from seventy-five to one thousand dollars. It is a good
rule in selecting furniture, not to buy any thing not actually needed, to buy
the best of its kind, and to pay cash or not buy. Never get any thing because
some one else has it, and do not be afraid to wait for bargains. Wise young
housekeepers buy furniture in single pieces or small lots, as they have means,
rather than expend more than they can afford in entire sets, which are really
less attractive.
Carpets should as a rule be of small pattern. The stoves--if grates or
fire-places are not used--should be of the kind that may be thrown open or
closed at pleasure. If a furnace is used, great care must be taken that the
rooms are not kept too hot in winter, and that there is most thorough
ventilation, as the health of the family depends as much on the quality of the
air they breathe as the food they eat. To waste heat is not so bad as to waste
health and vigor, and fuel is always cheaper, on the score of economy, than
doctors' bills. In furnace-heated houses--and the furnace seems to be accepted
as the best heater, though apparatus for steam and hot water seems likely to be
so perfected as to supplant it by furnishing a milder and more agreeable heat,
entirely free from noxious gases--there should always be grates or fire-places
in living or sleeping rooms; and whenever the furnace heat is turned on, there
should be a little fire, at least enough to start the column of air in the
chimney and secure ventilation. Without fire, chimneys are apt to draw down a
current of cold air. If there are no grates or fire-places, do not rely on
airing rooms from the halls, but throw open the windows and take in the outside
air. This is especially necessary when a room is used as a study, or for an
invalid. The air from the halls, although cold, is not pure. House-plants will
not thrive in furnace-heated houses where gas is burned, and human beings,
especially the young and delicate, need quite as pure air as plants. In a study,
or other room much occupied, the windows may be dropped during meals, and the
room warmed anew before it is needed again. There must also be plenty of
sunlight, floods of it in every room, even if the carpets do fade; and the
housekeeper must be quick to note any scent of decay from vegetables or meats in
the cellar, or from slops or refuse carelessly thrown about the premises. Every
room must be clean and sweet. In sickness, care in all these respects must be
doubled. In damp and chill autumn and spring days, a little fire is comfortable
morning and evening. The food for the family must be fresh to be wholesome, and
it is economy to buy the best as there is less waste in it. No housekeeper
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